Children as young as 12 treated for Class B drug Ketamine amid warnings of devastating damage

Children as young as 12 are suffering potentially devastating bladder damage after using ketamine, alarming NHS research reveals.

Doctors at Britain’s first specialist “ketamine bladder” clinic for under-16s found youngsters had typically been using the drug for between one and two years before being referred for treatment.

The first analysis of patients attending the pioneering clinic at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool, found their average age was just 14.5, with patients aged between 13 and 15 when referred. Some had started taking ketamine at only 12.

The findings come amid growing concern about ketamine use among British youngsters, with latest Government figures showing 1,465 children receiving drug and alcohol treatment in England in 2024/25 reported problems with the drug.

That is almost three times the 512 recorded just three years earlier in 2021/22.

Ketamine was reported as a problem by nine per cent of children in treatment last year, compared with just 1.3 per cent in 2016/17.

It is now the third most commonly reported problem drug among children receiving treatment, excluding nicotine.

Once best-known recreationally as a club and rave drug in the 1990s, ketamine can produce feelings of detachment from the body and surroundings and altered perceptions.

At high doses, the class B drug can put users in an intensely dissociated state commonly known as a “K-hole”.

In recent cases children have become incontinent and some have had to have bladders removed due to the devastating effects of the drug.

The new Alder Hey research, published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, examined the first 60 youngsters referred to its specialist ketamine-induced bladder damage clinic.

One of the 60 patients was referred in 2023, and nine in 2024.

Researchers then recorded a “rapid escalation” in referrals in 2025, leading to the specialist clinic being established that May.

Nearly three quarters of patients – 43 of the 60 – were girls.

More than 70 per cent lived in the most deprived fifth of England – compared with just 20 per cent of children nationally.

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More than a quarter – 27 per cent – were diagnosed with ADHD, autism or both, compared with an estimated six per cent in the wider population.

One in five had experience of the care system, compared with 0.67 per cent nationally, while 72 per cent had experienced at least one adverse childhood experience, compared with 47 per cent in the wider population.

The researchers concluded: “Patient characteristics suggest the burden of harm for (bladder damage) in under-16s is not equally distributed.”

Half of the youngsters were also using other drugs, 27 per cent reported drinking alcohol and 48 per cent used vapes.

There were signs, however, that stopping ketamine could help some youngsters recover.

At the time the researchers collected their data, 12 patients had been discharged because their symptoms were resolving and they reported having stopped taking ketamine.

Symptoms of urinary tract damage can include pain or burning while urinating, needing to go to the toilet extremely frequently or urgently and incontinence. In serious cases the damage can be life-changing.

Ms Harriet Corbett, a consultant paediatric urologist at Alder Hey, has warned chronic ketamine use can cause damage to the bladder wall including ulceration and fibrosis.

She said: “Ketamine bladder syndrome is a very serious problem associated with chronic ketamine use. It can lead to significant pain and long-term health consequences.

“Over the past few years, we have seen an escalating number of children and young people referred to Alder Hey with bladder symptoms.

“The symptoms can affect them for their whole life as ketamine use can result in damage to the bladder wall.

“The effects can be irreversible and can result in chronic bladder pain, incontinence, and in worst case scenarios, might necessitate removal of the bladder or kidney dialysis.”